Taliban drones Afghanistan GAO report

Karzai has a plan to negotiate with the Taliban, which would give them a chance to live in exile if they lay down their weapons. There are also plans made to offer economic incentives and jobs for Taliban fighters to quit the insurgency.

Also, drone attacks have been given authorization to expand under Bush and this policy has been continued by Obama. Essentially it transformed the program from targeted killings to broader attacks.

The GAO just issued a report questioning the success of Obama's strategy in Afghanistan. It says Taliban attacks and civilian deaths have increased in recent months: The report noted that Taliban-initiated attacks in Afghanistan rose 75 percent between 2008 and 2009 and that civilian casualties rose 72 percent between last September and March, compared with the comparable period a year earlier.
The actual report is here.
Some points:
-Since Obama announced his surge, about 16,000 troops have arrived in Afghanistan, compared to 200 civilians. Priority: military.
-Insurgent attacks have increased, and their attacks have always (since 2001) targeted primarily foreign troops, and much less so Afghan forces. There is a nice graph that shows this in the report:
Ex: total attacks against coalition forces between September 2009 and March 2010 increased by about 83 percent in comparison to the same period last year, while attacks against civilians rose by about 72 percent. Total attacks against the ANSF increased by about 17 percent over the same period.